Report to the Ranking Minority 

Member, Committee on Foreign 

Relations, U.S. Senate 

United States General Accounting Office 

GAO 

May 2003 HUMANITARIAN 

ASSISTANCE 

Protecting Refugee 

Women and Girls 

Remains a Significant 

Challenge 

GAO-03-663 
UNHCR and international organizations have developed guidelines, best 

practices, and other measures to improve protection of refugee women and 

girls. However, weaknesses in its staffing process and training limit the 

effectiveness of these measures. UNHCR lacks a formal strategic workforce 

plan that links the organization’s objectives, resources, and staffing; its staff 

assignment and rotation policies have resulted in extended vacancies at key 

protection posts; and it provides little practical training for most UNHCR 

and implementing partner staff on protection concepts and techniques. 

UNHCR could also make better use of partnering arrangements with 

nongovernmental and international organizations to boost its protection 

capacity. 

In response to allegations in 2001 of sexual abuse and exploitation of women 

and girl refugees by relief workers and peacekeepers, the U.N. and other 

international organizations introduced policies and procedures to address 

the problem, such as codes of conduct and mechanisms to report and act on 

new allegations of abuse of power. While these efforts have raised 

awareness among workers in refugee settings, international organizations 

face continuing sexual exploitation of women by relief workers, and the 

issue remains a real and significant problem. 

The U.S. government, through the Department of State, supports the 

protection of refugees and other vulnerable populations primarily through its 

funding to international organizations. It is also a strong advocate at the 

United Nations, within international organizations, and at the country level 

to increase protection efforts. 

Burundian Refugees in Tanzania 

Women and children refugees, who 

comprise 80 percent of the 

estimated 12 million refugees 

worldwide, are among the world’s 

most vulnerable populations. They 

are subject to gender-based 

violence, including physical harm, 

rape, and unequal access to 

humanitarian assistance. GAO was 

asked to (1) assess efforts by the 

U.N. High Commissioner for 

Refugees (UNHCR) to protect 

refugees, especially with regard to 

women and girls; (2) determine 

what steps U.N. and international 

organizations have taken to prevent 

sexual exploitation of refugee 

women by humanitarian workers; 

and (3) describe U.S. government 

efforts to support adequate 

protection for vulnerable 

populations. 

GAO recommends that the 

Secretary of State work to reform 

UNHCR’s staffing system, expand 

protection training, encourage 

protection partnering, and maintain 

focus on combating sexual 

exploitation of women and girls. 

State agreed with our 

recommendations. UNHCR 

disagreed with fundamentally 

reforming its staffing system, 

stating that better instruments for 

assigning staff and managing 

vacancies are sufficient remedies. 

We maintain that UNHCR needs a 

strategic workforce plan and better 

staff assignment and rotation 

policies to ensure that certain 

vacant duty stations are filled. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-663.

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact David B. 

Gootnick, (202) 512-3149, 

gootnickd@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-03-663, a report to the 

Ranking Minority Member, Senate 

Committee on Foreign Relations 

May 2003

HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

Protecting Refugee Women and Girls 

Remains a Significant Challenge 
Page i GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Letter 1

Results in Brief 2

Background 4

Recent Action Raises Awareness, but Refugee Women and Girls 

Continue to Face Violence 7

Despite Remedial Actions, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of 

Power Still a Problem 22

U.S. Government Funds International Organizations’ Protection 

Activities 26

Conclusions 28

Recommendations for Executive Action 29

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 30

Appendix I Scope and Methodology 34 

Appendix II Catalogue of Refugee Protection Reports 36 

Bibliography 40

Appendix III Comments from Department of State 43 

Appendix IV Comments from UNHCR 46 

Appendix V GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 58 

GAO Contacts 58

Acknowledgments 58

Tables 

Table 1: UNHCR’s Approved Regular and Supplementary Budgets, 

Actual Funds Received, and Percentage Difference, 1998-

2002 11 

Table 2: Protection Officer Vacancies by Region 16

Table 3: State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and 

Migration Contributions to UNHCR, United Nations 

Contents 
Page ii GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Children’s Fund, and the International Committee of the 

Red Cross, 1998-2002 26

Figures 

Figure 1: Burundian Refugee Women 6

Figure 2: Registration of New Refugee Arrivals in Tanzania 8

Figure 3: Distribution of Protection Officer Posts and Assisted 

Populations in High-Risk Countries 14

Figure 4: Refugee “Temporary Shelters” in Thailand 21

Figure 5: A Karen Women’s Committee Income-Generating 

Activity, Mae La, Thailand, 2003 24

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Page 1 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

May 23, 2003 

The Honorable Joseph Biden 

Ranking Minority Member 

Committee on Foreign Relations 

United States Senate 

Dear Senator Biden: 

Women and children refugees, who comprise 80 percent of the estimated 

12 million refugees worldwide, are among the world’s most vulnerable 

populations. Violence against women and girls has historically been, and 

continues to be, prevalent among refugees, including those fleeing current 

conflicts in Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Liberia. 

Gender-based violenceharm perpetuated against a person because of 

gender-based power inequitiesis aimed primarily at women and girls. In 

refugee settings, this violence can take the form of intimidation, physical 

harm, sexual abuse including rape, and unequal access to humanitarian 

assistance. Although no systematic data exist about the magnitude of the 

problem, reports by numerous international organizations over the past 

two decades demonstrate that sexual abuse of refugee women and girls is 

pervasive and present in almost all refugee settings. Reports out of West 

Africa in 2001 cited sexual abuse and exploitation of refugee women and 

girls by relief workers from international and nongovernmental 

organizations and by peacekeepers—the very people charged with 

protecting refugees. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 

is the lead international organization charged with providing protection 

and assistance to refugees and other vulnerable populations. 

Because of your concerns about the protection of this vulnerable 

population and the allegations of relief workers’ and peacekeepers’ abuses 

of power, you asked us to (1) assess efforts by UNHCR and its 

implementing partners to protect refugee women and girls from genderbased violence; (2) determine what steps the United Nations and 

international organizations have taken to prevent relief workers’ and 

peacekeepers’ abuse of women and girls; and (3) describe the steps the 

U.S. government takes to protect refugees and other vulnerable persons. 

To assess the efforts taken to protect refugee women and girls, we 

conducted fieldwork in refugee camps and surrounding areas in the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Thailand. 

Collectively, these four nations have more than 1 million refugees, face 

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548 
Page 2 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

protracted refugee crises in which refugees and other vulnerable 

populations are under imminent threat of physical and sexual violence, 

and were recommended as representative case study countries by State 

and think tank officials. We assessed the adequacy of international 

mechanisms to identify and provide protection to refugees from the time 

of their initial flight to their arrival and settlement in refugee camps to 

repatriation home. In addition to extensive interviews with refugee women 

and girls, refugee leaders, and camp management, we supplemented our 

field-level information with meetings with U.S. government, United 

Nations, Red Cross Movement, peacekeeping, and nongovernmental 

organization officials at the headquarter, regional, and country levels. In 

our work with UNHCR, we met with officials from 19 different offices and 

examined extensive staffing data—including vacancies, duty station 

categories, and worldwide distribution of staff. To assess U.N. and 

international organizations’ response to reports of abuse by staff and 

peacekeepers, we reviewed a series of remedial action plans recently 

issued by U.N. and other international organizations and assessed how 

these plans were being implemented in refugee camps. We also obtained 

independent perspectives from recognized experts within the human 

rights, think tank, and refugee advocacy communities on U.N. and U.S. 

efforts to provide refugee protection. (For a more complete description of 

our scope and methodology, see app. I.) 

Over the last decade, UNHCR and its implementing partners have boosted 

their efforts to protect refugee women and girls from sexual abuse and 

violence by creating policies, best practice guidelines, and programs to 

protect this population. At the field level, gender based violence initiatives 

are targeting vulnerable persons—such as female-headed households—

and providing them with secure shelter and access to services. Despite 

these gains, shortfalls in UNHCR’s resources and its weak management in 

staffing and training limit the effectiveness of measures taken. Regarding 

resources, failure of donors to fulfill funding pledges forced UNHCR to 

make budget cuts of $73 million—nearly 10 percent of its regular budget—

in 2002. These cuts led to a reduction in protection programs aimed at 

women and girls. Regarding staffing issues, UNHCR does not have a 

strategic workforce plan—a plan that links the organization’s objectives, 

resources, and staffing—to maximize the physical protection of refugees. 

Consequently, the number of protection staff in some high-risk countries is 

insufficient and impedes protection efforts. Furthermore, UNHCR’s staff 

assignments and rotations are voluntary and have resulted in extended 

Results in Brief 
Page 3 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

vacancies at key protection posts. In Tanzania, for example, UNHCR has 1 

junior protection officer responsible for the physical protection needs of 

155,000 refugees in 5 camps. Regarding training, we found that most 

UNHCR staff and staff within nongovernmental organizations that serve as 

their implementing partners in camps have not received practical training 

on protection concepts and techniques, such as how to identify and 

address sexual violence cases. Finally, we found that UNHCR’s 

implementing partners and other international organizations have 

protection capabilities that provide significant opportunities for partnering 

arrangements to fill gaps in refugee protection. 

In response to reports at the end of 2001 alleging sexual abuse and 

exploitation of women and girl refugees by relief workers and 

peacekeepers, the United Nations conducted an in-depth investigation into 

the allegations, and international organizations adopted codes of conduct 

and instituted training programs for their employees. During our fieldwork 

in numerous refugee camps, we found there was high awareness of the 

ethical and professional conduct expected of relief workers and 

peacekeepers, and there were established mechanisms to report and act 

upon any new allegations of abuse of power. Despite these efforts, 

international organizations still face continuing sexual exploitation of 

refugees by relief workers. Although the in-depth investigation could not 

verify specific charges of abuse, it found other cases and concluded that 

sexual exploitation by relief workers was a real problem. During our 

fieldwork, we observed officials from UNHCR and nongovernmental 

organizations investigating new cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by 

workers in Tanzania and Sierra Leone. Based upon extensive interviews 

with relief workers and refugee women, our observations, and review of 

12 years of reports, refugee women and girls remain extremely vulnerable 

to sexual exploitation and abuse of power due to (1) the high level of 

poverty among refugees, (2) limited monitoring of camp situations by 

international relief workers, and (3) cultural attitudes on the part of some 

relief workers and refugee-led camp management. According to relief and 

human rights experts, continued high-level management focus on 

preventing exploitation is necessary so attention does not wane before it 

becomes part of organizations’ institutional culture. 

The U.S. government’s role in protecting refugees and other vulnerable 

populations has been primarily through its funding of international 

organizations. In 2002, the Department of State provided UNHCR and the 

International Committee of the Red Cross—the two key international 

organizations mandated to provide protection—with $265 million and $124 

million, respectively. Furthermore, the Department of State in 2002 funded 
Page 4 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

a number of small grants for projects targeted to address specific 

protection problems in countries. During our fieldwork, we observed 

several of these protection projects—including some covering sexual and 

gender-based violence prevention—that addressed gaps in protection in 

Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The U.S. Agency for International 

Development (USAID), through its Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance 

and Office of Transition Initiatives, indirectly contributes to refugee 

protection efforts. Finally, in addition to financial support, the U.S. 

government plays an active role advocating for the protection of refugees 

and vulnerable populations at the United Nations, within international 

organizations, and at the country level. 

This report makes recommendations that the Secretary of State work with 

U.N. member states to address the inadequacies in the UNHCR staffing 

system, expand protection training programs, encourage the development 

of protection partnering arrangements, and maintain international 

organizations’ focus on combating sexual exploitation of refugee women 

and girls. 

In comments on a draft of this report, the Department of State said we 

accurately reflect the reality of current efforts to provide protection to 

refugee women and girls, noting that shortfalls in funding, prioritization, 

and an ineffective staff management system hamper UNHCR’s protection 

efforts. UNHCR disagreed with our recommendation to fundamentally 

reform its staffing system, stating that improvements to instruments for 

assigning staff and managing vacancies, as well as more predictable donor 

support, would be sufficient to address these problems. The problems in 

UNHCR’s staffing system have been long documented and improvements 

aimed at selected aspects of the system have not been effective. In our 

view, therefore, creation of a strategic workforce plan and the 

development of a staff assignment and rotation policy are necessary to 

address the protection needs of refugees in high-risk and difficult duty 

locations. A more detailed discussion of UNHCR’s comments and our 

response is included at the end of this report. 

UNHCR is the lead agency in a network of international organizations 

active in the protection and assistance of refugees and other populations 

that are vulnerable in war and conflict settings. Other major participants 

include the Red Cross Movement, the World Food Program, and the 

United Nations Children’s Fund, as well as nongovernmental organizations 

such as the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children. 

Established in 1950 to help resettle European refugees in the aftermath of 

Background 
Page 5 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

World War II, UNHCR is guided by the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 

Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, both of which detail refugees’ 

rights.1

 UNHCR’s primary purpose as mandated by the United Nations is to 

provide international protection for refugees by ensuring that their basic 

human rights are respected. Further, UNHCR is to ensure that individuals 

seeking asylum are given access to refugee status determination 

procedures, are not refused entry at borders, and are protected from 

forced return to a situation of danger. UNHCR’s policies, strategic 

objectives, and budget are set by its Executive Committee, which meets 

annually to set the organization’s priorities and direction. (Fig. 1 depicts 

Burundian refugee women who told us of their protection concerns in the 

Kasulu refugee camp in western Tanzania.) 

 1

Additional international instruments underpinning the rights and guarantees relevant to 

the protection of refugee women and girls include the Convention on the Elimination of All 

Forms of Discrimination Against Women, ratified by the United Nations in 1979; the 

Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by the U.N. General 

Assembly in 1993; and the subsequent Global Platform for Action, adopted at the Beijing 

Fourth Conference on Women in 1995; U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000); and 

Guidelines on International Protection: Gender-related persecution (2002). 
Page 6 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Figure 1: Burundian Refugee Women 

Factors inherent in armed conflict situations have changed the context in 

which UNHCR and other relief organizations provide assistance and 

protection to refugees and other vulnerable populations. In these types of 

situations, the nature of refugee and displacement flows has changed from 

persons fleeing organized conflict between states to an environment of 

civil war in which armed state and rebel groups purposely target civilian 

populations. The danger of operating in conflict zones and the personal 

security risks to relief workers are now major limitations to involvement 

in protection matters. For example, from 1997 through 2001, 106 relief 

workers were killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan, Angola, Rwanda, 

and Sudan. Even upon arrival at a refugee or displacement camp, women 

and girls remain vulnerable to violence from the local community, 

combatants who use the camp as a rest and relaxation base, and other 

refugees. In addition, some governments, such as Burma, block 

international organizations’ access to their vulnerable populations, thus 

Changing Nature of 

Refugee Protection 
Page 7 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

hampering protection activities. (See app. II for a listing of U.N. reports 

that cite sexual violence against women.) 

In response to the changing nature of the refugee context, humanitarian 

organizations in 1996 reexamined the legal, practical, and policy issues 

relevant to protection. Policy documents that emerged from this review 

defined protection as actions aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights 

of individuals by (1) preventing abuse; (2) restoring adequate living 

conditions subsequent to a pattern of abuse; and (3) fostering a social, 

cultural, institutional, and legal environment conducive to respect for the 

rights of the individual.2

 For the purposes of this report, we focus on the 

physical dimensions of protecting refugees, especially women and girls. 

Over the last few years, the international community has boosted 

protection of women and girl refugees from sexual abuse and violence 

through international conventions, new standards and guidelines, and 

increased programs on sexual and gender-based violence. However, 

UNHCR has faced heavy budget cuts because of shortfalls in contributions 

from international donors, and these cuts have directly impacted funding 

for gender-based protection programs. In addition, UNHCR lacks a 

strategic workforce plan linking its mission to its staffing system, which 

has led to insufficient protection staff in some high-risk countries. 

Furthermore, most UNHCR staff and those of their implementing partners 

have not been trained in protection concepts and techniques. We also 

found that UNHCR has opportunities to partner with other international 

organizations that it could use more effectively to increase protection of 

refugees. 

Over the last decade, UNHCR and its implementing partners have 

advanced the protection needs of refugee women and girls through a 

number of mechanisms, including the development of UNHCR Policy on 

Refugee Women (1990)3

 and Sexual Violence Against Refugees: 

 2

Workshop on Protection of Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations: Doing 

Something and Doing It Well, report of the workshop held at the International Committee 

of the Red Cross, Geneva, Switzerland, January 2001. 

3

UNHCR Policy on Refugee Women recognized that protection needs of men and women 

differ significantly and emphasized the importance of mainstreaming women’s protection 

needs into all protection and assistance activities. 

Recent Action Raises 

Awareness, but 

Refugee Women and 

Girls Continue to 

Face Violence 

UNHCR Has Taken Action 

to Improve Protection but 

Results Are Mixed 
Page 8 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Guidelines on Prevention and Response (1995).4 In addition, during our 

fieldwork in Sierra Leone and Tanzania, we observed UNHCR protection 

activities that identified vulnerable persons upon their initial arrival in 

their country of asylum—such as female-headed households and 

unaccompanied minors—provided them with secure shelter, and assigned 

them social service staff for continued assistance and monitoring. (Fig. 2 

depicts a group of new refugee arrivals in Tanzania at a border reception 

center being registered by UNHCR staff.) 

Figure 2: Registration of New Refugee Arrivals in Tanzania 

Throughout 2001, UNHCR sponsored a dialogue with refugee women that 

focused on their unique protection vulnerabilities and concerns. As a 

result, in 2002 the High Commissioner established five commitments to 

 4

Sexual Violence Against Refugees: Guidelines on Prevention and Response outlined 

practical steps and provided basic advice on preventing and responding to sexual violence, 

including the associated key legal, medical, and psychosocial issues. 
Page 9 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

improve protection of and assistance to refugee women and establish a 

link among gender equality, the advancement of women, and the 

protection of refugees. Based on our fieldwork and discussions with 

UNHCR and relief officials, we found that UNHCR has had mixed results 

in its efforts to implement the commitments and has not established 

mechanisms for their monitoring. 

The High Commissioner’s five commitments to refugee women cover the 

following areas: 

• Sexual and gender-based violence programs. UNHCR committed to 

develop comprehensive country-level strategies to address sexual and 

gender-based violence. The sexual and gender-based violence programs 

UNHCR has set up in recent years have increased awareness in both men 

and women. In our fieldwork, we observed sexual and gender-based 

violence programs in various camps. In Sierra Leone and Thailand, refugee 

women were attending gender awareness workshops and were active in 

monitoring their camps for incidents of sexual violence and assisting 

victims. In Tanzania, women participated in a firewood collection project 

designed to protect women and girls when they are outside of camps 

collecting firewood and very vulnerable to sexual assault. We also 

observed prevention and response strategies in place. In Tanzania, Sierra 

Leone, and Thailand, for example, refugee women told us that the camp 

gender-based violence centers and programs raised their awareness of the 

problem, informed them of their rights, and provided a practical means to 

get help. 

• Food distribution. In response to women’s difficulties in obtaining their 

rations when distribution is controlled by male-dominated camp 

committees or made directly to male heads of households without 

women’s participation, UNHCR pledged to ensure that refugee women 

participate directly and indirectly in the management and distribution of 

food and nonfood items. At the sites we visited, we observed that women 

were generally represented in food distribution programs. In Tanzania, at 

least 50 percent of the food distribution was handled by women, although 

participation levels remain under target in Sierra Leone and Thailand. 

• Camp management. To ensure that women’s concerns are heard and 

acted upon, the High Commissioner committed that 50 percent of refugee 

camp management representatives would be women. Our fieldwork 

showed that women’s involvement in camp leadership positions varied, 

partly due to cultural barriers in traditionally patriarchal societies. In 

Sierra Leone and Tanzania, camp officials and refugee women told us that 

women were very active, representing nearly 50 percent of the camp 

High Commissioner’s 

Commitments to Refugee 

Women 
Page 10 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

leadership positions. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 

Thailand, however, we learned that women are finding it more difficult to 

overcome cultural barriers to their participation in camp committees. 

• Registration of women. UNHCR committed to individually register all 

refugee women and provide them with relevant documentation to ensure 

their security, freedom of movement, and access to essential services in 

order to alleviate their dependence on men. During our fieldwork, we 

found that UNHCR is generally not individually registering women. Based 

upon our observations in Sierra Leone and Tanzania and on UNHCR’s own 

reports, UNHCR is continuing its practice of designating males as head of 

households. 

• Sanitary material. The lack of sanitary materials has negative health, 

social, economic, and psychological implications for women. As a result, 

the High Commissioner committed to making the provision of sanitary 

materials standard practice in all UNHCR assistance programs. The 

organization is finding this commitment difficult to fulfill, due to a lack of 

funds and commitment to the issue by some staff and implementing 

partners. A 2000-2001 UNHCR survey found that the provision of sanitary 

materials was inconsistent in terms of quantity, quality, method, and 

frequency of distribution. In May 2002, a State Department team also noted 

that the distribution of sanitary supplies covers only 40 percent of the 

relevant population in central Africa. In Sierra Leone and Tanzania, we 

learned that in some camps, a lack of funds allowed for the procurement 

and distribution of sanitary materials only to school-age girls. 

UNHCR’s protection efforts are constrained by recurring budgetary 

shortfalls. UNHCR’s Executive Committee, comprised of 61 member 

states, approves and supervises UNHCR’s annual work plan and approves 

its budget. The approved budget is based on pledges of support from the 

executive committee members themselves and other donor governments. 

However, in recent years donor governments have failed to meet their 

funding commitments.5

 In 2002, UNHCR had to cut $73 million from its 

regular budget—nearly 10 percentbecause of unfulfilled donor 

 5

Unlike other U.N. system organizations, UNHCR’s budget is not based on assessed 

contributions from member states, but is voluntary. The U.S. government annually 

contributes 25 percent of UNHCR’s approved budget. 

Budget Shortfalls Inhibit 

Protection Efforts 
Page 11 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

contributions. Since 1998 UNHCR has had to operate with an average 11 

percent shortfall in its regular budget. (Table 1 shows UNHCR’s regular 

and supplementary budgets and actual funds available.) 

Table 1: UNHCR’s Approved Regular and Supplementary Budgets, Actual Funds Received, and Percentage Difference, 1998-

2002 

Dollars in millions 

Year 

Regular 

budget

Funds 

available 

Percentage 

difference 

Supplementary 

budget a

Funds 

available

Percentage 

difference

1998 460 384 -17% 609 662 +9%

1999b 437 385 -12 815 782 -4

2000 854 780 -9 102 77 -25

2001 791 730 -8 108 146 +36

2002 802 729 -9 228 218 -4

Source: UNHCR. 

a

UNHCR’s supplementary budget consists of budgets authorized by the High Commissioner on an ad 

hoc basis for new situations that arise after the meeting of the Executive Committee. These budgets 

are exclusively funded from earmarked contributions and cannot be transferred to cover shortfalls in 

the regular budget. 

b

Due to the introduction of a new budget structure in 2000, subsequent regular and supplementary 

budget numbers are not directly comparable with those in 1998 and 1999. 

According to UNHCR program documents, budget shortfalls have forced 

the organization to reduce the scope of refugee operations and cut some 

protection activities altogether. For example, 

• the Refugee Women’s Unit cut field missions that were to support refugee 

women’s registration and documentation, as well as food distribution and 

camp management; 

• newly arrived Liberian refugee women were forced to reside in 

overcrowded communal shelters; 

• refugee registration programs in Iran were suspended; and 

• the number of protection officers monitoring the movements of refugees 

across international borders in Pakistan was cut. 

UNHCR lacks a strategic workforce plan that links the organization’s 

mission with its allocation of staff in the field. The organization’s staff 

assignment system and rotation policy leave numerous vacancies in key 

posts. Stopgap staffing mechanisms UNHCR uses to address emergency 

Flawed Staffing System 

Undermines UNHCR’s 

Protection Mandate 
Page 12 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

situations are intended only to address short-term emergencies and can 

lead to additional problems. Thus the number of protection staff is 

insufficient in many high-risk refugee situations and the organization is 

struggling to meet this population’s protection needs. 

At the end of 2002, UNHCR had 1,301 professional staff, including 402 (31 

percent) in headquarters and 899 (69 percent) serving in the field. The 

professional staff carries out UNHCR’s core mandate of protecting 

refugees and the organization’s 11 strategic objectives, such as improving 

the physical protection of refugees and monitoring their safety and wellbeing. Of these professional staff, UNHCR’s 320 protection officers have 

primary responsibility to protect refugees and other people of concern to 

the agency, although UNHCR’s field officers and community service 

officers (who are responsible for general management and assistance 

functions) also have protection duties, such as observing and reporting on 

potential problems. 

However, according to the Deputy High Commissioner and the Director of 

UNHCR’s Human Resources, the current process for managing human 

resources does not fully link the organization’s objectives, budgetary 

resources, and staffing. Currently, UNHCR’s process for allocating staff 

positions is largely based on available resources and broad operational 

plans rather than the protection requirements of refugees, according to 

UNHCR human resource officials. For example, in 2002, UNHCR’s Africa 

bureau and the Department for International Protection conducted an 

assessment of the protection staffing requirements in Africa and 

determined that 117 additional protection positions were needed. Due to 

funding constraints, however, only 21 additional positions were created. 

According to numerous relief and human rights officials, including some in 

UNHCR, current UNHCR staffing levels in Africa are insufficient relative 

to the protection caseload there. 

Related to the lack of a strategic staffing process, UNHCR does not 

conduct a global risk assessment of the threat level to refugees to help 

determine the number and distribution of all posts that could best protect 

refugees. Though determining minimum protection standards and optimal 

distribution of posts is outside the scope of this review, our analysis of 

high-risk countries found that UNHCR’s distribution of protection posts is 

UNHCR Lacks a Workforce 

Strategy 
Page 13 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

not consistent with the risk level and the caseload of the refugee setting.6

Specifically, high-risk countries in Africa have 55 percent of the protection 

posts but nearly 80 percent of the assisted refugee population. Conversely, 

high-risk countries in Europe have 22 percent of the protection posts but 

only 4 percent of UNHCR’s assisted refugee population. Furthermore, 

nearly 60 percent of the protection posts in low-risk countries are in 

Europe and serve less than 30 percent of the population at this risk level. 

While protection officers in low-risk countries in Europe play an important 

role in influencing governments regarding asylum law, the bulk of their 

work focuses on legal issues as opposed to the more immediate need of 

physical protection. Figure 3 shows high-risk countries and the 

distribution of protection officer posts and refugees within each region. 

 6

UNHCR does not formally designate risk levels for refugees. The World Bank has 

developed a database for measuring risk and governance; it includes 160 countries and is 

based on information from sources such as Standard and Poors and the World Economic 

Forum. We used political stability/violence measurements from this database to identify 

countries of high risk (Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay, and Pablo Zoido-Lobaton, 

"Governance Matters II: Updated Indicators for 2000-01”), World Bank Policy Research 

Department Working Paper (Washington, D.C.: 2002). 
Page 14 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Figure 3: Distribution of Protection Officer Posts and Assisted Populations in High-Risk Countries 
Page 15 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Page 16 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Protection experts acknowledge that a visible field presence of staff is one 

of the most effective means of preventing harm to refugees and other 

vulnerable persons. However, since the mid-1990s, UNHCR has identified 

staff vacancies, particularly in duty stations that already function with 

minimal staff, as negatively affecting its ability to fulfill its mandate. 

UNHCR staffing data in late 2002 indicated that 20 percent of its 320 

protection positions were vacant. Table 2 shows protection vacancies as 

of October 2002. 

Table 2: Protection Officer Vacancies by Region 

Source: UNHCR. 

a

Total posts include an additional 23 positions at headquarters. 

The Africa region had almost half of all protection vacancies, including all 

the protection vacancies UNHCR is chronically unable to fill. We observed 

vacancies in key protection situations during our fieldwork. For example, 

in Tanzania’s Kibondo camps, two protection officer posts were vacant, 

leaving only one junior protection officer to cover 155,000 refugees. We 

also observed that vacancies led to significant protection problems for 

refugee women and girls in and around the African Great Lakes region 

(Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Rwanda) 

and West Africa (Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast). The lack 

of sufficient staff resulted in long delays in resolving individual protection 

cases, which in turn discouraged reporting of additional sexual violence 

cases. For example, in Tanzania, UNHCR protection staff told us that some 

sexual assault cases were not pursued or were dropped altogether due to 

lack of staff and other resources to devote to them. As a result, victims of 

sexual violence often remained at risk while the perpetrator remained at 

large. Numerous relief officials in the field with whom we spoke voiced 

Vacancies Pose Protracted 

Protection Problems 

Bureau 

Vacancies in 

nondifficult 

duty stations 

Vacancies in 

difficult duty 

stations Total vacancies 

Total protection 

positions 

Percentage of 

protection 

vacancies 

Africa 10 21 31 103 30% 

Central Asia, Southwest Asia, 

Near and Middle East 4 9 13 49 27 

Asia and Pacific 5 1 6 30 20 

Americas 2 0 2 15 13 

Europe 6 3 9 83 11 

Department of International 

Protection (headquarters) 3 0 3 17 18 

Total 30 34 64 320a

 20 
Page 17 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

frustration over UNHCR’s inability to follow up on protection cases that 

were referred to them. 

In general, UNHCR employs a voluntary staff assignment and rotation 

policy: UNHCR does not direct staff where to serve, and staff members are 

responsible for finding and applying for their next post before their tour 

ends. While the High Commissioner emphasized in a 2001 letter to staff 

that it is incumbent upon UNHCR staff to be in the field, near refugees, to 

provide effective protection, many hardship posts are vacant or 

understaffed. One problem is that UNHCR does not have a centralized way 

to track and ensure that staff members apply for their next position,7

resulting in both post vacancies and staff being without assignment. As of 

January 2003, according to UNHCR staffing data, 109 staff were inbetween assignments—staying either at their home of record or at their 

old assignmentwith an average of 4 months lapsing before staff took a 

new position.8

Furthermore, UNHCR’s regulations do not require staff members to rotate 

among duty station categories (i.e., from a nonhardship to a hardship duty 

station), although there is an expectation that they will do so. According to 

some UNHCR staff with whom we spoke, there is a sentiment among staff 

that being posted in a remote location (also referred to as the ‘‘deep field’’) 

negatively affects a person’s promotion potential, as they would be 

“forgotten” by those making decisions in Geneva. In addition, the 

percentage of staff over the age of 40 has increased from 54 percent in 

1990 to 70 percent in 2000, and UNHCR officials acknowledge that a larger 

percentage of this aging workforce is reluctant or unwilling to serve in 

difficult duty stations because of personal reasons. UNHCR’s work 

requires many staff to live in remote, isolated locations that are not 

conducive to family life, and with more than half the duty stations 

designated as nonfamily, it is difficult to find enough staff willing to be 

separated from their families. According to UNHCR human resource 

officials, a further consequence of the organization’s limited rotation 

policy is that high-risk, hardship duty stations are more likely to attract 

 7

The onus is on the individual staff member to apply for his or her next post; UNHCR has 

no mechanism to ensure that staff apply in time for a seamless transition from one post to 

another. 

8

During the comment period on the draft report, UNHCR clarified that 80 percent of staff in 

between assignments are deployed on temporary missions or assignments, or continue at 

their post until their successor arrives. 

Staff Assignment and Rotation 

Policies Are Ineffective 
Page 18 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

less experienced junior staff without dependents than more experienced 

senior staff with dependents. 

UNHCR relies on short-term staffing deployments during emergency 

refugee operations to fill vacancies or augment country teams. 

Deployments generally last for 2 months but can extend up to 6 months. 

According to UNHCR and relief officials, while emergency deployments do 

help fill an immediate protection gap, the system has several drawbacks. 

Among them are the high operational and financial costs involved in 

relocating staff. Emergency deployments require intensive staff training 

and orientation and incur substantial transportation and relocation 

expenses. The emergency deployment mechanism can also leave a 

vacancy in the deploying staff’s original duty station. In Tanzania, for 

example, we observed that a senior protection officer responsible for 

more than 100,000 refugees was away from his/her post for more than 6 

months while on emergency deployment in Afghanistan. During Sierra 

Leone’s recent civil war, UNHCR had 77 emergency staff deployments on 

2-month missions over a 19-month period. According to the Country 

Representative, so many staff rotated in and out that he barely learned 

their names. Relief officials active during the Sierra Leone emergency told 

us that by the time the new UNHCR staff understood the local protection 

context it was time for them to rotate back out, which limited their 

effectiveness. According to another senior UNHCR field official, the 

protection workload during Sierra Leone’s civil war would not have 

constituted an emergency if an adequate number of staff had been 

assigned initially. 

To help fill empty field positions, UNHCR also relies on U.N. volunteers 

and project staff—workers contracted for a limited time by a specific 

project. In 2002, there were 106 U.N. volunteers serving in protection 

functions. However, according to UNHCR officials, while U.N. volunteers 

are a valuable source of staff support, they are often relatively 

inexperienced. Furthermore, according to UNHCR officials, because 

project staff are not regular UNHCR employees and are governed by 

restrictive employment regulations, they cannot work beyond an 8-hour 

day or on weekends. As a result, according to these officials, project staff 

are often unavailable during critical emergency periods. In Tanzania, for 

example, many of the Burundian refugees arrive during the night or over 

weekends, when crossing the border is considered safer. Because only 

UNHCR staff are available to assist during these surge periods, the 

workforce is even further strained. 

Stopgap Staffing Mechanisms 

Address Emergency 

Situations but Have Drawbacks 
Page 19 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Although protection officers have primary responsibility for the protection 

of refugees, UNHCR states that all staff serve in a protection role. 

However, a long-standing impediment is insufficient training for 

nonprotection staff on protection issues, especially regarding women and 

girls. In our examination of UNHCR protection reports and evaluations 

between 1990 and 2002, we found about half cited the need for training to 

increase the organization’s capacity to protect women and children. 

However, during our fieldwork, we had extensive discussions with 

UNHCR officials and their implementing partners’ staff and found that few 

of them had received any training on protection issues. For example, in a 

meeting with UNHCR’s field office team in Kibondo, Tanzania, only 4 of 43 

staff told us they had received training on protection issues. Similarly, in 

discussions with staff from UNHCR implementing partners, who are in the 

camps and in daily contact with the refugees, only a few had any 

protection-related training or were familiar with UNHCR’s guidelines on 

the protection of refugee women or children. In our discussions, we were 

further told that protection training was needed in such areas as how to 

identify and address sexual violence cases and how to work with refugee 

camp leaders and the local community to solve protection concerns. 

During the course of our review, we found that numerous protection 

training courses and modules have been developed and made available to 

UNHCR nonprotection staff and to implementing partners, such as 

Protecting Refugees: A Field Guide for NGOs (1999) and Human Rights 

and Refugee Protection (1995). However, according to several senior 

UNHCR officials, the organization has not committed the necessary time 

or resources to this training. These officials added that if UNHCR 

continues to assert that all field-based staff serve as protection officers, 

then it is incumbent that they be properly trained in protection issues. 

Furthermore, according to UNHCR implementing partners in Tanzania and 

Sierra Leone, there is a very high turnover rate among nongovernmental 

organization staff in the field and therefore a continuous need for training. 

While UNHCR has collaborated with international organizations such as 

the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and 

Save the Children in delivering humanitarian assistance, we observed that 

there are also opportunities to work with these types of organizations to 

help protect refugees. According to U.S. government and relief officials 

with whom we spoke, including other organizations in protection activities 

is necessary because of the increased scope and complexity of refugee 

situations worldwide and certain governments’ restrictions on UNHCR’s 

access to refugees and vulnerable populations. 

Lack of Training Continues 

to Hinder Protection 

UNHCR Has Opportunities 

to Increase Partnering to 

Fill Protection Gaps 
Page 20 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

According to officials of international and nongovernmental organizations, 

these groups have some capacity and resources to assist and augment 

UNHCR’s protection efforts, though such collaboration has been rare thus 

far. Based on our observations during fieldwork and discussions with 

these officials, their organizations could provide personnel and other 

resources to 

• assist in registering refugee women; 

• provide legal case management of victims of rape and sexual violence; 

• find durable solutions for refugees, such as identifying individuals for third 

country resettlement; 

• increase the number of international staff to monitor camps and 

surrounding areas for protection problems; and 

• ensure systematic reporting of incidents. 

In addition, UNHCR security personnel, who assess security and situation 

risks for staff in the field, said they could apply their expertise to refugees 

and other vulnerable populations and thus supplement the work of 

protection officers. 

During the course of our evaluation, we noted two partnerships already in 

existence that could serve as useful models on which to expand. For 

example, the International Rescue Committee’s Protection SURGE 

Capacity Project, started in 2001, placed 36 temporary protection staff in 

nonemergency refugee situations. In Sierra Leone, we met with a SURGE 

protection officer who was the only international staff available to receive 

and relocate more than 10,000 fleeing Liberian refugees from the border 

after unexpected fighting in Liberia erupted. Also, the Red Cross 

Movement and nongovernmental organizations have recently collaborated 

with UNHCR in designing a protection-training workshop, called “Reach 

Out,” for mid-level non-UNHCR staff.9

 Figure 4 depicts the entrance of two 

refugee camps in Thailand. A nonsignatory to the 1951 Refugee 

Convention, Thailand denies formal refugee status to fleeing Burmese who 

are instead afforded only “temporary shelter” along its border. UNHCR, 

 9

Both the Protection SURGE Capacity Project and the Reach Out protection training 

initiative were funded by State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. 
Page 21 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

which has only been accorded observer status by the Thai government, 

relies significantly on nongovernmental organizations to monitor the 

protection situation in the camps. 

Figure 4: Refugee “Temporary Shelters” in Thailand 

Another group that UNHCR may have greater opportunity to work with is 

U.N. peacekeeping forces, often the only international entity with some 

capability to protect refugees and other vulnerable groups in situations of 

armed conflict. We found that UNHCR and peacekeeping forces have 

worked together in some instances when force commanders judged that 
Page 22 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

mission mandates, resources, and capabilities permitted this collaboration. 

For example, a successful partnership occurred in 2001 when U.N. 

peacekeepers assisted in separating armed combatants from a refugee 

camp in northwestern Congo. According to U.N. and relief officials with 

whom we spoke, two key protection areas in which UNHCR and 

peacekeepers have opportunities to work together are: 

• ensuring access to vulnerable populations for humanitarian assistance and 

protection; and 

• separating civilians from armed combatants in refugee camps and 

settlements. 

While UNHCR officials in general viewed partnering as a positive 

development, they expressed concern that partnering could dilute the 

agency’s unique protection mandate by delegating its tasks to external 

parties. This concern has grown as European donors have channeled 

increasing proportions of their refugee funding to their bilateral aid 

agencies and national nongovernmental organizations that operate 

independently of UNHCR leadership. These officials noted that some 

nongovernmental organizations hold political views that may complicate 

UNHCR’s relationship with the refugees’ country of origin and country of 

asylum. However, according to relief experts, partnerships can be 

structured so UNHCR continues to be the main interlocutor with 

governments and maintains primary responsibility for overall protection 

while international organizations help fulfill discrete protection tasks. 

Following allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by relief workers 

and U.N. peacekeepers in refugee settings in West Africa in 2001, the 

United Nations and international organizations undertook a number of 

remedial and preventive measures at both the global and country level. At 

the global level, the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) 

conducted a detailed investigation into the allegations presented in the 

February 2002 report by UNHCR and Save the Children-UK10 and 

concluded that the charges could not be verified. However, during the 

course of the investigation, OIOS discovered other specific cases of abuse 

and concluded that sexual exploitation of refugees is a real problem. To 

 10UNHCR and Save the Children-UK, Sexual Violence & Exploitation: The Experience of 

Refugee Children in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (Geneva: United Nations, Feb. 

2002). 

Despite Remedial 

Actions, Sexual 

Exploitation and 

Abuse of Power Still a 

Problem 
Page 23 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

address the problem, the U.N.’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee11

established a task force in 2002 and implemented a plan of action for U.N. 

agencies and nongovernmental organization to follow. The plan focused 

on (1) outlining preventive actions to help agencies create an environment 

in humanitarian crises free of sexual exploitation, (2) providing basic 

health and psychosocial care to survivors of abuse, and (3) developing 

management and coordination mechanisms to ensure accountability of 

humanitarian agencies. 

We examined several international organizations’ remedial actions and 

found that they had made a concerted effort to address the issue of sexual 

exploitation by their staff. For example, after reviewing documents and 

discussing the issue with field staff from UNHCR, the International 

Committee of the Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, and the 

International Rescue Committee, we found that organizations had 

• sent clear statements to staff of their ethical responsibilities toward 

refugees, the need for accountability, and “zero tolerance” of exploitive 

behavior; 

• developed or revised codes of conduct to guide the behavior and attitudes 

of staff; 

• provided awareness and training workshops for international and national 

staff; and 

• polled country staff globally on the potential for situations of sexual 

exploitation and conducted investigations of high-risk environments. 

Our extensive interviews with relief workers, peacekeepers, and refugees 

in the field also indicated a very high awareness concerning the issue of 

abuse of power, the ethical and professional conduct expected of relief 

workers and peacekeepers, and the rights and entitlements of refugees. 

 11The U.N. Inter-Agency Task Force is composed of the following members: Office for the 

Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, U.N. Development Program, U.N. High 

Commissioner for Refugees, U.N. Children’s Fund, World Food Program, Food and 

Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization, and the U.N. Family Planning Agency. 

In addition, there is a standing invitation to the International Organization on Migration, 

International Committee of the Red Cross, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the 

Representative of the Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons, the World Bank, 

the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, InterAction, and the Steering Committee 

for Humanitarian Response. 
Page 24 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

We also observed that UNHCR had mechanisms in place in the camps for 

refugees to confidentially report abuses of power and had trained refugee 

women leaders to monitor for exploitive situations. In Thailand’s Mae La 

refugee camp, for example, we met members of the women’s committee 

who had received UNHCR sexual and gender-based violence training, 

served as the camp’s ‘‘eyes and ears,’’ and were actively engaged in 

managing cases of exploitation and domestic and sexual violence. Figure 5 

shows a woman from the Karen tribe engaged in an income-generation 

project that supports women’s programs in the camp. Income generation 

and empowerment programs make women less vulnerable to exploitation. 

Figure 5: A Karen Women’s Committee Income-Generating Activity, Mae La, 

Thailand, 2003 

A woman weaving cloth to be sold in the camp; proceeds are used to provide members with income 

and to support women’s programming in the camp. 

Despite these efforts by international organizations, abuse of refugees 

continues to be a problem. During our fieldwork in Tanzania and Sierra 
Page 25 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Leone refugee camps, we met with UNHCR and nongovernmental 

organization officials who were actively investigating several new cases of 

sexual exploitation by relief workers. In the Tanzania situation, eight 

nongovernmental organization relief workers and four Tanzanian police 

officers employed under a U.S. government-funded project were fired for 

sexual exploitation of refugee girls or failure to report the exploitation.12 In 

addition, senior UNHCR officials in Nepal were dismissed for tolerating an 

environment of exploitation among Bhutanese refugees by refugee men 

and Nepalese government officials employed under UNHCR-funded 

projects. 

Moreover, based on our fieldwork, analysis of UNHCR staffing, and review 

of UNHCR’s most recent reports on refugees (2000-2002), the conditions in 

refugee camps create an ongoing environment in which women and girls 

are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse of power. First, camps are 

sites of extreme poverty, and women are often reduced to exchanging sex 

for otherwise unavailable food and nonfood items such as clothing, shelter 

materials, and cooking items. According to refugee women with whom we 

spoke, adolescent girls seeking such items as clothes and jewelry are 

particularly susceptible to transactional sex relationships. Second, there is 

limited monitoring of camps because few UNHCR professional staff are 

present, leaving actual day-to-day management of camps to locally hired 

staff or the refugees themselves. Finally, some relief workers and refugeeled camp management staff hold cultural attitudes that are accepting of 

sexually exploitative arrangements and thus perpetuate the problem. 

Although the issue of sexual exploitation of refugee women and girls by 

relief staff has recently caught the attention of the public and international 

organizations due to the publicity of the West African case, the problem is 

long-standing and likely to continue, according to relief and human rights 

experts. In our examination of UNHCR and nongovernmental 

organizations’ reports on refugee protection, we found numerous 

references to refugee women being exploited while in camps and 

recommendations for corrective actions (see app. II). However, it is only 

recently that action has been taken. Given this situation, relief and human 

rights experts, including senior UNHCR officials, emphasized the need for 

a continuing high-level focus on preventing exploitation by international 

organizations in such forums as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and 

 12All State Department funded nongovernmental organizations are required to incorporate 

the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s six core principles into their codes of conduct. 
Page 26 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

UNHCR’s Executive Committee. They noted that international relief 

organizations are moving on to new emergencies and priorities and feared 

that the current attention to preventing sexual exploitation will wane 

before it becomes a part of organizations’ institutional culture. 

The U.S. government addresses the protection needs of refugees and other 

vulnerable populations primarily by providing funding to international 

organizations mandated to provide protection. In 2002, the Department of 

State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration provided UNHCR 

$265 million in budget support—nearly 28 percent of the organization’s 

funding. Table 3 shows the amount of funds State contributed to 

international organizations mandated to provide protection. 

Table 3: State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration 

Contributions to UNHCR, United Nations Children’s Fund, and the International 

Committee of the Red Cross, 1998-2002 

Dollars in millions 

Year UNHCR UNICEF ICRC

1998 $268 $1 $101

1999 293 14 127

2000 261 18 124

2001 243 8 122

2002 265 11 124

Source: Department of State. 

Note: The U.S. government’s total contribution to UNICEF in 2002 was $110 million, which includes 

emergency and regular budget support. 

The Department of State also provides grants to nongovernmental 

organizations to implement targeted protection activities to augment 

international organizations’ protection efforts. In 2002, State provided 

$11.4 million to fund 35 discrete protection-related projects. During our 

fieldwork we observed several of these small grant projects (ranging from 

under $100,000 to $2 million) and found that they focused on protection 

gaps. For example, 

• In Tanzania, a $1 million grant strengthened the government’s capacity to 

maintain the civilian and humanitarian character of the camps in its 

territory. The funding enabled deployment of nearly 280 Tanzanian police 

to the border camps to maintain law and order and prevent and investigate 

crimes, including incidents of sexual and gender-based violence. 

U.S. Government 

Funds International 

Organizations’ 

Protection Activities 
Page 27 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

• In Sierra Leone, a $630,000 sexual and gender-based violence prevention 

and response program provided shelter for female-headed households, 

income-generation and leadership training for women and girls, gender 

sensitization training for host communities, and psychosocial counseling, 

medical care, and rehabilitation support to victims of sexual assault. 

USAID is not directly involved in refugee protection programming; 

however, a number of its humanitarian and development assistance 

activities indirectly contribute to protection of refugees and other 

vulnerable persons. USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance 

provides non food humanitarian assistance, such as shelter, water 

sanitation, and food security, to persons caught up in crisis situations. The 

Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance has also provided funding to 

transport civilians facing imminent threat of physical attack from insecure 

areas. USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives also indirectly contributes to 

protection by assisting countries in their transition from post-conflict 

situations to democracy. In countries such as Macedonia and Angola, 

project staff have worked with government leaders and populations to 

strengthen awareness of and respect for human rights, advocated for a 

stronger role for women in peace and reconciliation issues, and assisted 

ex-child soldiers in their reintegration into society. 

Apart from providing funding, the Department of State historically has 

played an active role advocating within the international community for 

increased attention and programmatic response to the plight of refugees 

and other vulnerable populations. According to relief experts and 

European government aid representatives, State’s Bureau of Population, 

Refugees, and Migration is unique among donors in the number of staff 

resources devoted to managing refugee and humanitarian programs. In 

addition to approximately 80 Washington-based staff, the bureau has 5 

refugee officers serving in liaison roles with international organizations in 

Geneva and Brussels, and another 19 overseas-based officers monitoring 

refugee situations. According to U.N. and relief officials with whom we 

spoke, the U.S. government is active in assessing humanitarian needs in 

the field and promoting an international response to them. A 2002 

Overseas Development Institute report characterized U.S. government 

U.S. Government Also 

Advocates Strong 

International Response 
Page 28 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

staff as playing the role of pushing and prodding UNHCR and its 

operational partners in their programmatic responses.13

We reviewed U.S. government policy positions and statements concerning 

protection of refugees and other vulnerable persons since 1998 and found 

that the U.S. government has consistently pushed for a strong international 

response. For example, in early 2000, the U.S. Representative to the United 

Nations strongly criticized the international community for its failure to 

address the needs of internally displaced persons. More recently the U.S. 

government has argued for renewed support to UNHCR from the 

European Commission and its member states, whose recent cuts in 

funding contributed to UNHCR’s budget crisis. As a member of UNHCR’s 

governing body (known as the Executive Committee), the U.S. 

government has consistently called for increased and better response to 

refugee protection needs. Over the last several annual meetings, the U.S. 

government has 

• encouraged UNHCR to ensure that protection is prioritized as its core 

function; 

• pressed for continuous focus on the prevention of sexual exploitation; 

• criticized staffing decisions by UNHCR management to cut posts in Africa; 

and 

• called for an operations plan for the protection of women that would 

identify benchmarks to measure progress, create a monitoring plan, and 

establish a timetable for implementation of specific protection-related 

actions. 

While international organizations have taken a number of steps in recent 

years to improve the protection situation of refugee women and girls, this 

population remains extremely vulnerable to sexual violence. Among the 

factors undermining the international community’s efforts are the 

difficulty of protecting refugees caught up in conflict zones and recurring 

budgetary shortfalls caused by donors not fulfilling funding pledges. 

However, UNHCR’s weak management of its workforce planning and 

 13Overseas Development Institute, The ‘bilateralization’ of humanitarian response: trends 

in the financial, contractual and managerial environment of official humanitarian aid 

(London, U.K.: Oct. 2002). 

Conclusions 
Page 29 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

staffing system also significantly hinders protection of women and girls. A 

strategic workforce process that emphasizes a performance- and goaloriented approach to human resource management could link the 

organization’s mission and goals to its workforce staffing. There are 

insufficient numbers of protection staff in many high-risk countries, and 

UNHCR’s assignment policy has resulted in extended vacancies at key 

protection posts. Furthermore, international relief workers who 

implement assistance programs and have daily contact with refugees have 

not received protection-related training, and many were unfamiliar with 

UNHCR’s guidelines on the protection of women and children. Despite 

this, UNHCR’s implementing partners and other international 

organizations have significant resources and capabilities that provide 

opportunities for partnering arrangements to fill protection gaps. In 

response to allegations reported at the end of 2001 of sexual abuse and 

exploitation of refugee women and girls by relief workers and 

peacekeepers, the United Nations and international organizations adopted 

codes of conduct stressing zero tolerance for such behavior and 

implemented training programs on gender-based violence for all national 

and international staff. In the four countries we visited, we found that 

relief workers and peacekeepers were acutely aware of the professional 

conduct expected of them, and refugees had access to mechanisms to 

report any new problems of sexual exploitation. Nonetheless, during our 

fieldwork we observed several new allegations of sexual misconduct by 

relief workers. High-level management must continue to focus on the issue 

of exploitation because extreme poverty in camps, limited monitoring by 

relief workers, and cultural attitudes of some camp staff continue to put 

women and girl refugees at risk. 

To strengthen the international response to the protection needs of 

refugees, especially women and girls, we recommend that the Secretary of 

State work with member states to fundamentally reform UNHCR’s staffing 

system so that it can more effectively fulfill its core protection mandate. 

Measures to accomplish this could include: 

• creating a strategic workforce plan that systematically determines priority 

staff positions worldwide, based on the relative protection needs of 

refugees and realistic assumptions of available resources; and 

• developing a staff assignment and rotation system that ensures difficult 

and chronically vacant duty stations are filled with employees with the 

requisite skills and experience, especially in Africa. 

Recommendations for 

Executive Action 
Page 30 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

We also recommend that the Secretary of State work with other U.N. 

member states to 

• expand training opportunities so that international and nongovernmental 

staff in positions of contact with refugee populations are fully versed in 

protection policies and practical protection techniques; 

• encourage the development of protection partnering arrangements 

between and among U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations to 

better utilize and leverage program and staff resources currently operating 

with vulnerable populations; and 

• ensure continued focus on efforts to prevent sexual exploitation of 

refugee women and girls by making the issue of exploitation an annual 

agenda item at refugee policy forums, including the U.N.’s Inter-Agency 

Standing Committee and UNHCR’s Executive Committee meetings. 

State and UNHCR provided written comments on a draft of this report and 

we revised the report where it was necessary. (See app. III and IV for a 

reprint of State’s and UNHCR’s comments.) State endorsed the intent 

behind the report to improve the protection of refugee women and girls 

and said it would exercise its best efforts to implement the report’s 

recommendations. State noted that a strategic workforce plan is key to 

developing a stronger, more flexible workforce that meets UNHCR’s 

strategic needs. State also said it is essential that nongovernmental 

organizations receive training on protection issues as they are on the front 

lines and serve as protection “eyes and ears.” In this regard, State plans to 

promote a more disciplined application of training in fiscal years 2004 and 

2005. 

UNHCR disagreed with our recommendation to fundamentally reform its 

staffing system, stating that it already has processes for allocating staff 

resources and that we did not take into account UNHCR’s full range of 

responsibilities. UNHCR believes that improved instruments and capacity 

for placing staff and managing vacancies, along with more predictable 

donor support for established priorities, are sufficient elements for 

success. UNHCR did not indicate its position with regard to our three 

other recommendationsexpanding protection training programs, 

developing protection partnering arrangements, and maintaining 

international organizations’ focus on combating sexual exploitation of 

refugee women and girls. It did, however, describe activities in which it is 

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation 
Page 31 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

engaged pertaining to each recommendation. Where appropriate we 

provided some of this information in the report. 

Regarding our recommendation on staffing, we do not dispute UNHCR’s 

assertion that its mandate is not limited to the physical protection of 

refugees and that it has many responsibilities, including status 

determination and finding durable solutions for refugees. Our report 

demonstrates the inadequacies of physical protection for refugees and the 

lack of an overall strategic workforce plan that incorporates risk to 

refugees. We used the World Bank’s database for measuring risk because it 

is an authoritative source of political stability and violence measurements 

across 160 countries in the absence of any such analysis by UNHCR. The 

problems associated with UNHCR’s staffing system have long been 

documented in Executive Committee and public and internal UNHCR 

reports, including The State of UNHCR’s Staff (December 2000) and In 

the Service of Refugees: A Review of UNHCR’s Policy and Practice on 

Rotations (October 2001), and provide ample evidence of a staffing system 

failing to place the necessary number of people, with the requisite skills, 

where they are needed most. UNHCR may disagree with our use of the 

term ‘‘fundamental’’ when describing the reforms, but we have observed 

that half-steps or partial measures will not solve its staffing problems. 

According to the reports mentioned above, previous attempts at improving 

separate aspects of the staffing system have not achieved the desired 

results. At a minimum, UNHCR needs to create a strategic workforce plan 

that links the organization’s objectives, resources, and staffing and 

systematically incorporates the physical protection of refugees. It also 

needs to devise a staff assignment and rotation system that fills vacant 

posts in high-risk countries, especially in Africa. 

Regarding our recommendation to expand training opportunities, UNHCR 

stated that the report does not adequately reflect UNHCR’s existing 

protection training programs and activities and provided detailed 

information on its training activities, including the Protection Learning 

Program. During the course of our evaluation, we reviewed a large number 

of protection training courses, modules, and materials and spoke with staff 

who participated in the various training programs, including the 

Protection Learning Program. By all accounts the protection training 

programs and materials are very useful in transmitting protection concepts 

and practical techniques to staff. (However, we were told that the 4 month 

and 10 month Protection Learning Programs are too time intensive for 

field staff.) Nevertheless, when meeting with UNHCR and 

nongovernmental organization staff at the camp level in each of our four 

case study countries, we found that a large majority of staff had received 
Page 32 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

no training on protection matters. This and our overall analysis of 

international organizations’ training led to our recommendation to expand 

protection training. 

UNHCR stated that our report does not reflect the extensive partnering 

arrangements in which it has engaged for decades and that it would 

welcome more extensive involvement with other agencies on the provision 

of services. It provided an outline of partnering arrangements between 

UNHCR and other U.N. agencies. When we examined UNHCR’s list of 

arrangements and recent developments, we noted that they mainly involve 

high-level meetings to coordinate assistance activities. Our 

recommendation, however, is aimed at increasing the role of international 

and nongovernmental organizations in the protection of refugees. 

International organizations’ daily interaction with refugee populations and 

their organizational capacity could be better utilized and leveraged to 

enhance refugee protection. 

Regarding our recommendation on maintaining international 

organizations’ focus on combating sexual exploitation, UNHCR made no 

comment on the substance of the recommendation but provided additional 

information on activities it has taken over the last 20 months. However, 

under Part B of its response, UNHCR stated that our summary of the 

U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report was not an 

accurate reflection of the investigation’s conclusion. UNHCR referred to 

the report’s conclusion at paragraph 42 as a more accurate representation 

of the report and noted further that no allegations against any U.N. staff 

member could be substantiated. Our statement characterizing the OIOS 

report was taken from the fifth paragraph of the Executive Summarythe 

first substantive discussion of the report’s findings, which states that 

“although the stories reported by the consultants could not be verified, the 

problem of sexual exploitation of refugees is real.” We further note that 12 

of the 17 recommendations in the OIOS report are directed to UNHCR. We 

are concerned that the principal message UNHCR has drawn from the 

OIOS report is that UNHCR staff are exonerated from wrongdoing. Our 

perspective, however, is that although U.N. staff members were 

exonerated from wrongdoing, the problem of sexual exploitation of 

refugees is significant. 

UNHCR also provided a number of technical comments, which we 

incorporated as appropriate. 
Page 33 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional 

committees, the Secretary of State, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency 

for International Development, the U.N. Secretary General, and the U.N. 

High Commissioner for Refugees. We will also make copies available to 

other parties upon request. In addition, this report will be made available 

at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff have any questions concerning this report, please 

contact me at (202) 512-3149 or at gootnickd@gao.gov. Other GAO 

contacts and staff acknowledgments are listed in appendix V. 

Sincerely yours, 

David Gootnick 

Director, International Affairs and Trade 
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology 

Page 34 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

To assess the gaps and weaknesses in the current international system of 

protection of refugees and vulnerable persons, as well as the actions the 

U.N. and international organizations have taken in response to recent 

reports of relief workers’ and peacekeepers’ sexual exploitation of refugee 

women and girls, we interviewed officials and analyzed policy, program, 

and budgetary documents from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees 

(UNHCR), the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the U.N. 

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the U.N. High 

Commissioner for Human Rights, and the U.N. Children’s Fund. In our 

work with UNHCR, we met with officials from 19 different offices and 

examined extensive staffing dataincluding vacancies, duty station 

categories, and worldwide distribution of staff—and reviewed UNHCR 

staffing policies. We also met with officials and reviewed reports 

pertaining to humanitarian and refugee issues from numerous 

nongovernmental organizations and think tanks, including the 

International Rescue Committee, the United States Committee for 

Refugees, Refugees International, and InterAction. 

To assess the steps the U.S. government takes to protect refugees and 

other vulnerable persons, we interviewed officials and analyzed policy, 

program, and budgetary documents from the Department of State’s Bureau 

of Population, Refugees, and Migration; the Bureau for International 

Organizations; and the U.S. Missions to the United Nations in New York 

City and Geneva, Switzerland. When examining State’s small grants 

program, we included only those projects that directly dealt with 

protection matters, such as conflict prevention and reconciliation, 

psychosocial assistance, sexual and gender-based violence prevention, and 

transportation of vulnerable populations. We also met with officials and 

analyzed program documents from the U.S. Agency for International 

Development’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Affairs, 

including the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of 

Transition Initiatives; and the Bureau for Global Programs. 

We also performed fieldwork in our case study countries of the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Thailand 

to assess the protection mechanisms in place for refugees and other 

vulnerable persons in refugee camps and their surrounding areas within 

those countries. These four nations face protracted refugee crises in which 

refugees and other vulnerable populations are under imminent threat of 

physical and sexual violence by warring parties, local communities, and 

other refugees, and were recommended as representative case study 

countries by State and think tank officials. In these countries, we observed 

first-hand the protection programs and activities conducted by U.N. 

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology 
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology 

Page 35 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

organizations, peacekeeping units, the Red Cross Movement, 

nongovernmental organizations, and the U.S. government. We also 

conducted numerous interviews with refugee-led camp management 

groups and individual women and girls to discuss the protection situation 

in the camps, as well as the mechanisms in place to report and address 

incidents of sexual and gender violence and exploitation. 

Finally, we conducted an analysis of 22 UNHCR and nongovernmental 

organizations’ evaluations and reports issued since 1990 to document the 

reported gaps in and recommendations to strengthen the international 

community’s system of refugee protection. We also conducted a detailed 

analysis of the mandates and capabilities of the 13 current peacekeeping 

missions managed by the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations. 

We performed our review from August 2002 through May 2003 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 
Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 

Page 36 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

We examined 22 reports published since 1990 by UNHCR and 

nongovernmental organizations that addressed problems related to 

refugee protection. We focused on whether the report cited physical 

violence, sexual abuse, or exploitation of refugee women and girls. Each 

column heading denotes the year that the report was published. We then 

identified eight discrete protection concerns that were commonly 

discussed in the reports and listed them in the left column. Finally, we 

analyzed the reports to determine whether a protection gap was identified 

or a recommendation was made to address the specific protection 

concern. 

Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 
Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 

Page 37 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

[This page is intentionally left blank] 
Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 

Page 38 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 

Page 39 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 

Page 40 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Note on Refugee 

Women and International Protection, Department of International 

Protection, EC/SCP/59, August 28, 1990. [Scope: UNHCR] 

Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Program, Forty-first 

session, UNHCR Policy on Refugee Women, A/AC.96/754, August 20, 

1990. [Scope: UNHCR] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Refugee and Displaced 

Women and Children, Economic and Social Council Resolutions, 

E/RES/1991/23, May 30, 1991. [Scope: The International Community] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Guidelines on the 

Protection of Refugee Women, July 1991. [Scope: UNHCR] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Progress Report on 

Implementation of the UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee 

Women, Department of International Protection, EC/SCP/74, July 22, 

1992. [Scope: UNHCR] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, The Personal Security 

of Refugees, Department of International Protection, 

EC/1993/SCP/CRP.3, May 5, 1993. [Scope: UNHCR] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Refugee Protection 

and Sexual Violence, Executive Committee Conclusions, No. 73 (XLIV) – 

1993, October 8, 1993. [Scope: The United Nations] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Report of the Working 

Group on Refugee Women and Children, Department of International 

Protection, EC/SCP/85, June 29, 1994. [Scope: UNHCR] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A Review of UNHCR’s 

Women Victims of Violence Project in Kenya, Inspection and Evaluation 

Service, March, 1996, and UNCHR’s Women Victims of Violence Project 

in Kenya: An Evaluation Summary, Department of Administrative and 

Financial Matters, EC/1995/SC.2/CRP.22, June 8, 1995. [Scope: UNHCR 

and Partner NGOs] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Refugee Camp 

Security in the Great Lakes Region, Inspection and Evaluation Service, 

EVAL/01/97, April 1997. [Scope: UNHCR and Partner NGOs] 

Bibliography 
Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 

Page 41 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Progress Report on 

Refugee Women and UNHCR’s Framework for Implementation of the 

Beijing Platform for Action, Standing Committee, EC/47/SC/CRP.45, 

August 15, 1997. [Scope: UNHCR] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A Survey of 

Compliance With UNHCR’s Policies on Refugee Women, Children, and 

the Environment, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Section, EPAS/99/01, 

March 1999. [Scope: UNHCR] 

Machel, Graça, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: A Critical 

Review of Progress Made and Obstacles Encountered in Increasing 

Protection for War-Affected Children. This paper is a product of the 

International Conference on War-Affected Children, Winnipeg, Canada, 

September 2000. [Scope: The International Community] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A Beneficiary-Based 

Evaluation of UNHCR’s Program in Guinea, West Africa, Evaluation 

and Policy Analysis Unit, EPAU/2001/02, January 2001. [UNHCR and 

Partner NGOs] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Evaluation of the 

Dadaab Firewood Project, Kenya, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, 

EPAU/2001/08, June 2001. [Scope: UNHCR and Partner NGOs] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Meeting the Rights 

and Protection Needs of Refugee Children: An Independent Evaluation of 

the Impact of UNHCR’s Activities, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, 

EPAU/2002/02-ES, May 2002. [Scope: UNHCR] 

Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, UNHCR Policy 

on Refugee Women and Guidelines on Their Protection: An Assessment 

of Ten Years of Implementation, May 2002. [Scope: UNHCR, NGO 

Partners] 

American Council for Voluntary International Action (InterAction), 

Report of the InterAction Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual 

Exploitation of Displaced Children, June 2002. [Scope: The 

International Community] 

United Nations General Assembly, Executive Committee of the High 

Commissioner’s Program, Fifty-third Session, Agenda For Protection, 
Appendix II: Catalogue of Refugee Protection 

Reports 

Page 42 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Addendum, A/AC.96/965/Add.1, June 26, 2002. [The International 

Community] 

Report of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Protection 

From Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises, June 

2002. [Scope: UN Agencies and Partner NGOs] 

United Nations General Assembly, Fifty-seventh Session, Agenda Item 

122, Report of the Secretary-General on the Activities of the Office of 

Internal Oversight Services, Investigation Into Sexual Exploitation of 

Refugees by Aid Workers in West Africa, A/57/465, October 11, 2002. 

[Scope: UNHCR and Partner NGOs] 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Implementation of the 

Five Commitments to Refugee Women, 2002. [Scope: UNHCR, Host 

States, NGO Partners] 
Appendix III: Comments from Department of State 

Page 43 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Appendix III: Comments from Department of 

State 
Appendix III: Comments from Department of State 

Page 44 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Appendix III: Comments from Department of State 

Page 45 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

Page 46 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 
Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

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Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

Page 55 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

Page 56 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Appendix IV: Comments from UNHCR 

Page 57 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 
Appendix V: GAO Contacts and 

Staff Acknowledgments 

Page 58 GAO-03-663 Humanitarian Assistance 

David B. Gootnick (202) 512-3149 

Tetsuo Miyabara (202) 512-8974 

In addition to those named above, Janey Cohen, Jonathan Weiss, Christina 

Werth, Richard Seldin, and Patrick Dickriede made key contributions to 

this report. 

Appendix V: GAO Contacts and Staff 

Acknowledgments 

GAO Contacts 

Acknowledgments 

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